Process for making glass signs



June 16, 1931. c. J. OLSON 1,310,526

PROCESS FOR IAKING GLASS SIGNS F116 April 16, 1930 Patented June 16, 1931 CARL Orson; or Mmnn-Aroms, 1yri1vnnsors;

-with absolute accuracy. f The nicety of PROCESS FQRMAKING GLAss SIGNS Application filedApril 16,

This invention relates to processes for making glass signs' -v r At thepresent time there is a largedemand for glasssigns. These signs are usually made by sign painters having a high degree of skill in'the artof lettering and figure and design painting. The outline of the complete design for the sign is usually first laid out on the rear side of the glass in reversedrelation, whereupon the sign painterfills in the complete design directly on the glass by paint, metal leaf or thelike. All the work is hand work and, of necessity, the border lines between one 1 individual d'esign and a second individual design in a composite design cannot be made the sign depends entirely on the degree of skill of the particular artisan doing the work. As a rule, the border linesbetween one individual design in a' composite design and another individual design in thencomposite design are not sharp and clear and the individual designsin a composite design will not stand out clearly fromeach other.

It is an object of'the present invention to provide-processes for making glass signs, whereby the signs can be made with extreme accuracy and in much shorter time than is usuallyirequired in making similar glass signs today, without necessitating the exercise of a high degree of skill on the part of the sign painter.

, Itis a further object to provide improved processes for making composite design glass signs, whereby the borders between indi- ;vidual deslgns 1n the composite design-sign will be absolutely true and accurate and, as a result, the individual designs will clearly stand out from each other to present a much more'striking appearance than is the case in the. usual glass sign made today.

a To these ends, the invention consists in the novelprocesses and the novel steps in the processes hereinafter defined in the claims and described inthe following specification, made in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the various views and, in which, v 1 F1g. 1 1s a v ew in front elevation illustrat- 1930. Serial No; 444,701.

ing acomplete glasssign made by use of the processes of my invention; r I i 1 v Fig. 2 is a viewillustratinga stencil that IBnay be used-in producingthe sign shown in ig.1; v Fig. 3 is a view'showing the rear side of the sign when certain steps in the process of making-the sign have been completed;

Figs. 4L, 5 and 6 are sectional views taken on the lines 4 -4, 55 and 6-6 respectively, of Figs. 1,2, and 3, and

Figs. 7, 8 and9 are perspectivesectional views showinga certain portion of thesign illustrated in Fig; 1 during different steps of -its-construction.- A 7 Although practically any typeof glass-sign can be made by use of my'present process and processes, I haveishown in thedrawingsa particular sign which is illustrative of various types of signs that may be made by use of-my present process and processes and .I

will describe my process and processes in connectioncw'ith the construction: of the sign illustrated. 1 p v The glass sign illustrated inFig. 1 isa composite design sign including a plurality of individual designs. Theletter R design '10, is composed of gold leaf and is-divided into two parts, the part 10a and the part 10?), the part 10a being bright and unshaded and the part 10?) being shaded to give a dull or rough effect thereto to produce the eflect' of three dime'nsionsin the design 1O. To make theidesign 10 standout, abackground design ll is used and this background is illustrated as being of -green color, "A second background design-12 surrounds the design 11 and this second background: design is shown asbeing of blue color. Another design 13 illustrated as being of red color surrounds the design 12 and serves as a border design to contrastingly set off the other designs of the sign.

My process and processes for making the sign illustratedin Fig. 1 may be described as follows: ,A stencil 1 1 is first prepared-having the reverse outlinesofithe parts 10a and 10b of design 10and designs 11,12 and 13"defined thereon by perforations 14a. The stencil may be made "in any desired manner on practically any type of sheet material, but will preferably be made by drawing the reversed outlines of the various individual designs and the parts of the design 10 thereon by pencil, whereupon the perforations 14a may be punched through the sheet material.

The glass upon which the sign is to appear is designated by the numeral 1'5. Preparatory to making the sign, the back side of this glass will be thoroughly cleaned, whereupon the entire back of the glass will be moist ned with water, so that a thin layer of water lies completely over the back side ofthe glass. A thin layer of metal foil 16, such as tinfoil, is then spread on the water eompletelyover the back of the sign, the water permitting the tinfoil to be spread evenly and also acting to hold the tinfoil in place. Preferably, the foil 16 will be smoothed evenly on to'the glass as by means of a rolleror the like. After the foil 16 is in place on the glass 15, the stencil 14 will be applied over the back side of the foil 16, whereupon a powdered material such as powdered chalk or powdered charcoal contrasting in color with the foil 16, will be worked through the perforations 14a of the stencil to cause the s-tenci lled outlines of the various individual .designs in the composite design to appear on the back of the foil 16 in reverse relation. Preferably the powdered material will be worked through the perforations 14a of the stencil by shaking a small cloth strainer bag, carrying the powdered material, over the perforations in of the stencil.

The outlines of the individual designs are now out through the foil 16 to the glass 15 by means of a sharp knife or the like, by following the stencilled outlines of the individual designs as imprinted on the back side of the foil'1'6. In Figs. 3 and -6, the cut foil applied to the glass 15 is illustrated, the cuts in the foil being designated by the numeral 17. After the cuts 17 are made, thecut edges of the foil l-6will be pressed downwardly against the glass 15 as by applying a paper over the foil ;16 and pressing inwardly on the paper over the cuts'17, As the cuts 17 will be made with a sharp knife, or similar sharp tool, and as the/foil 16 is an easily cut material, the outlines of the various designs may be cut through the foil 16 with extreme accuracy, it being possible to use a straight .edge along which the knife may be guided for making many of the cuts.

The next step in my process is to remove from the glass '15 those portions or strips of foil 16 which overlie the portionso-f the glass upon which the shaded parts 10a of the design 10 are to appear, while allowing all other parts of the foil 10 to remain in place .on the glass. In Fig.7, a sectional perspective view of a portion of the sign completed as thus far described, is illustrated, the strips .of foil 16 covering that portion of the glass 15 where the shaded part 10?) of the design 10 is to appear, being removed. The space left by removal of the strips of foil over the portion of the glass to be covered by the shaded part 10?) of the design 10 is now filled in by varnish 18, or similar transparent material, and the varnish 18 or the like is allowed to dry. The foil 17 adjacent the portion of the glass to be filled in 'by the shaded part 106 of the design 10 will act to prevent the varnish 18 from being spread onto other portions of the glass and as a result no great caremnst exercised in applying the varnish 18, it being immaterial whether part of :the varnish iorerla ps some of the foil 16 or not. The varnish 18 can, therefore, be very quickly applied to the glass and the edges of the varnish layer applied to the glass will be absolutely true and accurate. Fig. 8, the varnish 1'8 isshown as applied to the glass 15.

After the varnish 18 has hardened, strips of foil 16 adjacent the varnish and covering that portion of the glass where the unshaded parts 10a of the design 10 are to appear, will be removed. If desired, portions of the varnish 18 may be scraped off the glass to produce the shade lines '19 at certain points in the part 10?) of the design 10. Gold leaf 20 as shown in Fig. 9, will now be applied over the varnish layer 18 and over the glass 15 to completely cover the space on the glass to be taken up by the complete design 10. No particular care need be exercised in applying the gold leaf 20 inasmuch as portions of the leaf may overlap portions of the foil 16 placed over portions of the glass where the design 11 is to appear. The gold leaf 20 will beapplied the usual manner-as by a line brush, a thin glue being used to secure the leaf to the glass 15 and the varnish 18.

Thefoil overlying portions of the glass 15 where the design 11 is to appear will'now be removed from the glass by ripping the same off from the glass and -asthis foil is removed, any portions of the gold leaf 20 which overlies these portions of the foil, will be broken sharply off due to the fact that the leaf 20 is extremely thin. The edges of the design 10 will he clearly defined by the gold leaf 20 with extreme accuracy,

The design 11 may now be filled in on the glass with greenpain-t and no great care need be used in applying the paint as it makes no difference whether or not the paint will overlap the gold leaf 20 and the foil 16 overlying that portion of the glass where the design '12 is to appear. The foi'l overlying the portion of the glass where thedcsign 12 is to appear may then be removed after the paint or other material forming the design 11 has dried, whereupon the design 12 can be filled in in the space left on the glass with .blue paint or the like. After the design 12 has been applied and the paint thereof dried, the remaining portions of the foil 16 on the glass may PI'OCESS and PIOCGSSQS.

be removed and the free portions of the glass filled in with the red paint forming the design 13. v

As, whenever any individual design in the I compo-site designis filled in on the glass, all other portions of the glass will be covered by either the foil 16 or by an individual design already filled in, it will be seen that the edges of the design being filled in can be made with extreme accuracy and that the lines between adjacent designs will be true and clear cut.

As a result, the individual designs in the composite design will stand out from each other distinctly. There will be no merging of one individual design into another individual design and no great care need be taken at the time that the paint, metal leaf or the like, for any individual design, is applied to the glass.

As was stated, the design illustrated is merely illustrative of the type of work that can be done by use of my process and processes. It is perfectly possible to make practically any type of glass sign by use of my For example, in the sign illustrated, if it is desired to eliminate the design 11 and permit the letter design 10 to appear in outline on transparent glass, the foil 16 covering the space on the glass where the design 11 appears during the manufacture of the sign, may be allowed to remain in place until all other designs on the sign are filled in, whereupon the foil may be removed from the glass to cause the letter R to stand out I in relief from the transparent glass. Any

I portion of the sign may be filled in with gold or silver leaf or any portion of the sign may be filled in with paint, varnish or similar substance to produce the desired appearance in the sign. The foil 16 may be common tinfoil, lead foil, or any other similar metal foil. In place of using a stencil 14, the outline of the complete design may be applied to the foil 16 in any desired manner, The sequence in which varnish designs in a composite design are applied to the glass, may be varied at will.

The time required in producing a glass sign; by use of my present process and processes is found to be a great deal less than the time that must be used in producing a similar type sign under present methods. The reason that my glass sign can be produced so quickly is largely due to the fact that no care need be exercised at the time any particular design is being filled in on the glass. As best shown inFig. 4, the paint, metal leaf etc. forming.

the various designs maybe allowed to overlap on the rear sides of designspreviously applied to the glass or to overlap on the metal foil strips and no care need be exercised in pro ducing the edges of the various designs as is I the case in the ordinary glass sign made today.

the workproduced has been extremely satisfactory.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in my processes which the sign is to appear, cutting the out-' lines of both the shaded and unshaded pori tions of the design to be reproduced in metal leaf through the metal foil to the glass, re-

moving, from the glass, strips of metal, foil which cover portions of the glass to be'filled in by the shaded portions of the metal leaf design, processing the glass in the spaces left therein by withdrawal of said strips to produce the desired shading efiect when metal foil is applied over said open portions of the glass,removing, from the glass, strips of the metal foil covering those portions of the glass that are adapted to be filled in by the unshaded portions of themetal leaf, filling in the open portions of the glass produced by removal of said first mentioned and second mentioned metal foil strips with metal leaf and then removing the metal foil about the metal leaf design.

2. The process defined in claim 1, and filling in the portions of theglass about the metal leaf design with a background design.

In testimony whereof I aifix my signature.

CARL J. OLSON.

My processand processes have been successfully demonstrated in actual practice and 

